Hurricane Irma: Places with the storm's name lost power, trees

For all of Hurricane Irma’s tumult, she did something nice for a few residents on a street bearing her name: She improved their lake view.

The storm spun through Lake County with wind gusts up to 69 mph, knocking out electricity, uprooting trees and tearing down dozens of limbs that once hid nearby Lake Joanna from Roy and Marie Baker’s home.

“Once it’s all cleaned up, I think it’s gonna actually be to our benefit,” said Marie Baker, 63, who has lived on Irma Road in Eustis since 1977.

Irma battered Central Florida with high winds and rains Sept. 10 and 11, causing widespread power outages and flooding neighborhoods. Streets with her name weren’t spared.

In Orange County, Irma’s winds peaked at 78 mph at Orlando Executive Airport, less than three miles from Irma Avenue, where a tall elephant-ear tree toppled onto a house that serves as the offices for Cash & Associates, a retirement and estate-planning firm.

Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel

Hurricane Irma knocked out power to homes on Irma Road near Eustis in Lake County for eight days. The storm also toppled an elephant-ear tree onto a house used as an office on Irma Avenue near downtown Orlando.

Hurricane Irma knocked out power to homes on Irma Road near Eustis in Lake County for eight days. The storm also toppled an elephant-ear tree onto a house used as an office on Irma Avenue near downtown Orlando. (Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel)

No one was injured. The firm reopened after a crane lifted the tree off the house and the trunk and limbs were chain-sawed into pieces.

Stacks of branches, sticks and twigs line the avenue, home to a private school for students with developmental disabilities and to several businesses, including architectural firm C.T. Hsu & Associates. Their notable projects include Universal Studios Transportation Center and the Geico parking garage near Amway Center, plus Boone, Edgewater, Mount Dora and Osceola high schools.

Sydney Cruz, an administrative assistant at the architectural firm, said its building lost power briefly. They could tell because the ice cream in the office fridge was still good.

A neighbor’s tree also fell in the parking lot, damaging a fence, but the company escaped Hurricane Irma unscathed otherwise.

“As more reports of power losses came in, we realized what a blessing that was,” she said in an email signed, “Fingers crossed.”

David Roberts, a family-law attorney with an office on Irma Avenue, said he considered the hurricane’s name an omen.

“I thought either I’m going to get hit really hard or I’ll be spared,” he said.

He said he was lucky.

Next door, residents of the Highland Flats apartments dealt with minor storm flooding, a brief power outage and Irma ironies.

“I thought it was a little funny, Irma on Irma,” said Sarah Turner, 41, who soaked up storm water in her unit with towels.

Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel

Sarah Turner, 41, leans on a wall outside her apartment on Irma Avenue that experienced minor flooding during Hurricane Irma. "I thought it was a little funny, Irma on Irma," Turner said. She sopped up storm water in her apartment with towels.

Sarah Turner, 41, leans on a wall outside her apartment on Irma Avenue that experienced minor flooding during Hurricane Irma. "I thought it was a little funny, Irma on Irma," Turner said. She sopped up storm water in her apartment with towels. (Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel)

Her sister from Opa-locka came up from Miami-Dade County with a baby to stay with Turner during the hurricane, believing they would be safer on Irma Avenue than hunkering down in South Florida. Irma was a Category 4 storm when it blew through the Florida Keys but weakened as it headed north.

Henry Meyer, who lives on Irma Shores Drive on Lake Irma near the Econlockhatchee Trail in east Orange, said his neighborhood lost power for a few days but otherwise fared better with Irma than with Hurricane Charley in 2004.

“I’m getting too old for this,” said Meyer, 66. “It scares the bejesus out of you.”

Irma did worse damage to its namesake Irma Road in Lake County. Residents there lost power for eight days.

“As soon as they named it Irma, I said joking, ‘You watch. It’s going to come right down Irma Road here,’ ” said Doug Shaw, 51, a school bus driver whose family has lived on the road for more than 30 years.

Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel

Doug Shaw, 51, and his mother Geneva, 72, relax in their Irma Road home on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. The Shaws survived Hurricane Irma, which knocked out power to their home for eight days.

Doug Shaw, 51, and his mother Geneva, 72, relax in their Irma Road home on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. The Shaws survived Hurricane Irma, which knocked out power to their home for eight days. (Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel)

Irma didn’t come right down the road, but it looked like it.

The privately maintained road was strewn with limbs. Neighbors pitched in to help each other clean up.

Shaw’s mother, Geneva, said storm debris turned her pool water green but also — like Baker on Irma Road in Eustis — improved their backyard view.

“Now we can see the lake from here, and we can see sky through the trees,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”

Marion Donatelli, 89, whose daughter Theresa Sanges recently bought a home at the corner of Grove Street and Irma Road, paused from walking her terrier, Asta, to admire a tall stand of oaks in the yard, pruned by Irma of limbs and Spanish moss.

“Thank the good Lord none of them came down. It’s so beautiful, so lovely, so peaceful here,” she said, “except when it’s storming.”

Marion Donatelli, 39, holds her pet Asta on Irma Road in Eustis where the hurricane knocked out power for eight days but spared several magnificent oak trees in her daughter's yard.

Marion Donatelli, 39, holds her pet Asta on Irma Road in Eustis where the hurricane knocked out power for eight days but spared several magnificent oak trees in her daughter's yard. (Stephen Hudak/Orlando Sentinel)